12 Years a Slave (2013) review

Since 2011, around 5 to 10 films earn Best Picture nominations at the Oscars. It’s common to expect some major upsets to happen during Oscar night, but it seems like the race for this top honor usually comes down to two films almost every year. Some of the most recent examples of this trend include ‘Argo’ and ‘Life of Pi’ last year, ‘Hugo’ and ‘The Artist’ in 2011, and ‘The Hurt Locker’ and ‘Avatar’ in 2009. This year is no different. Having been both a critical and commercial success since being released back in early October, Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Gravity’ has been receiving major attention during ‘Oscar season’. However, the film that everyone says WILL be the film that wins Best Picture this year is Steve McQueen’s ’12 Years a Slave’. The tale of a free man forced into slavery can be brutal at times, but you can’t deny its status as one of the best films of the year. It achieves this status by not letting up and showing the full detail of the horrors of slavery and is backed up by an outstanding ensemble cast.

’12 Years a Slave’, based on the autobiography of the same name from 1853, is the true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who, in 1841, lived as a free man in Saratoga, New York with his family, making a living as a violinist. One day, Solomon is approached by two men named Brown and Hamilton (Scoot McNairy and Taran Killam) who offer him a job in their ‘traveling’ circus. Solomon accepts the offer but after a night in Washington D.C., Solomon suddenly finds himself sold into slavery and unable to tell anyone that he is a free man. With a new name, Platt, and status as a ‘Georgia runaway’, Solomon now has to endure his new life as the film follows him on his 12-year journey as the property of various owners, including the kindly preacher William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the cruel and vicious Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).

Most slavery movies might end up avoiding showing some of the severe extremes that slaves went through. This film does not do that; it clearly emphasizes how horrible it was for those who were in slavery at the time. More importantly, it shows that it could corrupt even the nicest person. As you might have guessed, there were people like Edwin Epps who were down-right sadistic and cruel but then you have someone like Solomon’s first owner, William Ford. This preacher is actually nice to his slaves, and yet he’s still a slave owner. Even someone as nice as Ford was involved in this horrible act. That’s the reason why this film works so well; it doesn’t skimp on anything. Because of this, the film is incredibly hard to watch, mainly in part to how McQueen shoots it. He lets a lot of shots run for a while; one scene in particular involving a hanging is very effective and intense. But that was exactly how life was like for slaves back then.

This film also has a terrific ensemble cast, and two actors in particular are surefire contenders for acting awards at the Oscars. In the lead role, Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a very quiet and reserved performance as Solomon Northup. He does a fantastic job at conveying the character’s emotions simply through his facial expressions, which makes his performance all the more powerful. That is because his character realizes that if he even tried to say anything, he would be beaten or worse, killed. Equally outstanding in this film is Michael Fassbender as Edwin Epps. This may be an utterly despicable, heartless, and repugnant human being (his wife Mary (Sarah Paulson) is equally sadistic), but Fassbender just gets into the role and manages to get a lot out of it. These two headline an outstanding cast, most of whom appear in minor roles, including Brad Pitt as a friendly carpenter and Paul Giamatti as a slave trader. But there are some who really stand out in more substantial roles, like Benedict Cumberbatch and newcomer Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey, a fellow slave who befriends Solomon and is lusted after by Epps.

Everyone is saying that this film will win Best Picture at the Oscars, and if it does, I won’t be surprised because this film is easily one of the best of 2013. It’s extremely hard to watch at times, but its unrelenting nature truly reflects what really happened back then. A terrific ensemble cast is led by two heavy contenders for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender, respectively. This is a really big deal in the case of the latter because it would be a travesty if this turns out like last year’s Oscars, where Leonardo DiCaprio got snubbed for his outstanding work in ‘Django Unchained’. That better not be the case this year with Fassbender, who has been snubbed by the Academy before. My friend Matt gave this film a proper nickname, ‘White Guilt: The Movie’. I guarantee you’ll be feeling that while watching this movie, along with a few other emotions.

Rating: 5/5!